


Use your differential analysis: On Chekhov’s bomb

by Grimview, Hagar



Category: Killjoys (TV)
Genre: Arkyn, Gen, Meta, Project Chrysalis, Red 17, Season/Series 01, Spoilers, The Company That Serves the Quad, The RAC
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-13
Updated: 2015-09-13
Packaged: 2018-04-20 13:44:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4789394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Grimview/pseuds/Grimview, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hagar/pseuds/Hagar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the nature of the object from s01e06 One Blood is discovered, Johnny immediately remarks on its potential ramifications for families. That certainly makes sense in the context of Qreshi politics - but are the events of s01e10 Escape Velocity the use for which this object was developed? Using s01 information about the Company, the RAC, the military and Khlyen, we argue that this object was used by the people it was meant to destroy, against the people who’d commissioned it - and flipping one of the latter in the process.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Use your differential analysis: On Chekhov’s bomb

**You could destroy an entire bloodline with it… or could you? An Introduction**

In s01e06 One Blood, Khlyen has Dutch track Joe, the ship Joe stole, and whatever was on that ship. Khlyen isn’t interested in Joe or in the ship itself; rather, he’s after the cargo. He sends Dutch after it not knowing what it is: what he _does_ know is that it’s caused Company Security to send out a year’s worth of encrypted comm within half a day, which means that “What's on that ship is very valuable to [the Company], which makes it valuable to us."

When Dutch discovers the empty box, Khlyen recognizes what it was made to contain. He becomes highly upset, and says that “All of the Company and most of the RAC would kill” for the stolen object - which turns out to be a weapon that turns to ashes all persons (presumably within range) who are of a certain degree of genetic similarity to the sample with which the weapon was primed.

The weapon is returned to the Company. When Khlyen hears that the weapon is no longer in Dutch’s possession, he loses his calm and becomes upset enough to choke Dutch (hard enough to leave bruises), telling her that by defying his orders she’s put both of them at risk from his superiors. Later, Dutch tells Johnny and D’avin that “Something about [the weapon] scares [Khlyen].”

When the nature of the weapon is discovered, Johnny immediately remarks: “You could take out an entire blood line with [this]” _._ That’s certainly true, and it also makes sense in the context of Qreshi politics; but while that’s the use the weapon was eventually put to _-_ is this the use the weapon was _intended_ for?

**Rumours, Conspiracies, and Conflict; Red 17, the RAC, and Project Chrysalis**

The Qreshi moon Arkyn is supposedly uninhabitable, publicly declared a failed first attempt at terraforming (followed by the successes of Westerly and Leith). However, the RAC rumor mill has it that RAC agents gone absent are taken to Arkyn, where they are made “Level 6″. At the very end of s01e10 Escape Velocity, D’avin wakes up at an unknown location, and discovers fellow killjoy Fancy Lee in the next bed. D’avin goes out to a balcony - and discovers they’re on Arkyn.

Earlier in the same ep, Dutch’s warrant-broker Bellus had said that rumor has it RAC agents are made Level 6 through biological experimentation. Just like the rumors about killjoys kidnapped and taken to Arkyn, this rumor too seems to be on the mark: the room D’avin wakes up in looks like a hospital room; Fancy is hooked up to tubing reminiscent of medical equipment; and the staff who follow D’avin outside wear biohazard or similar gear.

As the camera zooms out, we discover the facility is marked from the outside with a number “17″ painted in red. The code “Red 17″ was mentioned twice before in S1. It first appeared in s01e05 A Glitch in the System, the object of a military “enhanced interrogation” effort. (It should be noted the military appears to be the same one D’avin had served in; between that and nobody being surprised at that ship being in the Quad, it seems reasonable the military is the J’s, the sector of which the Quad is part.) The interrogation program being decades old, one may assume Red 17 has no relevance to the present-time of the show; however, in s01e09 Enemy Khlyen, in response to D’avin saying that Dutch doesn’t need anyone’s help, senior RAC agent Turin says “Then why is she marked for Red 17?” (thus implying that being marked for Red 17 is something against which one needs be protected).

The RAC is Red 17’s screening and recruitment front, but their goals are decidedly not identical. Not much after the above exchange between Turin and D’avin, Turin shoots Dutch, who pleads with him “We’re on the same side!” Turin replies that he’s not sure they are - and is stabbed in the back by Khlyen, who declares “No, we’re not.” (Khlyen also names the Company and the RAC in the same breath in s01e05, when he says “All of the Company and most of the RAC would kill” for information of the gene-targeted weapon. That seems almost insignificant next to the literal backstabbing of Turin, though.) The Company and whatever comes from Arkyn are not friends, either: the Company had bailed out of that moon and shut the door on it, declaring it irrevocably uninhabitable. When the gene-targeted weapon is returned to Company hands, the normally-unflappable Khlyen becomes so agitated he attack Dutch, which (she tells Johnny and D’avin later in the same episode) has never happened before.

That’s within the Quad - but Red 17 is not concerned with the Quad alone. In s01e09 we’re told that the RAC is marketing its services to other systems in the J - and that this work, which widens the reach of Red 17 recruitment, is done from Khlyen’s floor. The military, which is presumably the J’s, seems to consider Red 17 a full-fledged enemy. While it’s possible that decades-old interrogation program was an information security effort, it’s far more likely it was an intelligence collection operation.

Then there’s Chrysalis, the project Jaegar did for the military. (The name “Chrysalis” appears on screen when she activates the sleeper-program.) In episode s01e07 Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Jaegar tells Dutch that Chrysalis was meant to be a “proof-of-concept demonstration”: that the military wanted to know if it’s _possible_ to turn a soldier against their forces but not to actually _achieve_ it. One doesn’t have to believe Jaegar (she certainly lied about other things), but her distress at activating the sleeper program seems genuine, as does her rankling at having been fired for her failure with D’avin, the urgency with which she argued the necessity of her research, and her fear of whatever her research is necessary _against._ Someone at the Company must’ve shared Jaegar’s threat assessment, or else she wouldn’t have been brought to the Quad  and given a secure lab, equipment and assistants (and, presumably, research subjects) - and that’s to say nothing of the Level 5 warrant issued on her behalf.

The military initiated Chrysalis, like it did the “enhanced interrogation” program seeking information about Red 17. Considering Red 17’s non-consensual recruitment and induction as well as their expansion plans, it’s entirely possible that Chrysalis was intended to further understanding of Red 17 technology - and perhaps even allow the military to plant a sleeper agent among the ranks of Level 6.

The military discontinued Project Chrysalis after D’avin had killed his team: that was not a risk they were willing to take. Chrysalis and Dr. Jaegar were taken on by the Company - which runs the Quad, the system that houses Red 17’s base. If anyone other than Red 17 knows what’s on Arkyn, the Company is it: somewhere in their archives is the reason they abandoned Arkyn and declared it uninhabitable.

Canon gives us a glimpse of what that reason might be. As shown in s01e09, Khlyen’s office at the RAC has a basin of unidentified glowy-green viscous fluid which functions as a touch-activated, voice-controlled computer. When the security alert goes off later the same episode, it’s not Johnny faking Khlyen’s voice that triggers it nor his touching the material; it’s his scooping up some of the liquid that does. Accordingly, in s01e10 Khlyen doesn’t care about the stolen files (which Johnny gave to Carleen to decrypt), only about the liquid.

Also in s01e10, the tubes connected to Fancy’s nose and eye have something glowy-green in them. (It should be noted those organs provide particularly easy access to the brain.) Those tubes are shown to be connected to a panel in the wall, much like oxygen tubing at an ordinary hospital: this sort of an installation is used when a material needs to be regularly and widely dispensed. Arkyn’s atmosphere has glowy-green fog, and the liquid is visible near the surface of the crater which the Red 17 facility overlooks. Whatever the glowy-green material is, it comes from Arkyn and is necessary for the Level 6 transformation - which, if the otherwise-accurate rumors are to be believed, involves genetic alteration.

If the Company knows what’s on Arkyn; if the Company continued an anti-Red 17 project the military abandoned, because it’s more concerned about the threat; wouldn’t it make sense for them to have developed a weapon that, if primed and dropped into Arkyn’s atmosphere, would wipe out Red 17’s power base and prevent any more Level 6 agents from being created? The theft of this weapon would certainly justify a year’s worth of encrypted communication in 12 hours - and if the gene-directed weapon was intended for use against Red 17, that would certainly explain Khlyen’s reaction when it was returned to Company hands. It would also make the weapon having been deployed against the Nine particularly ironic.

**Turnabout Is Fair Play: Khlyen & Delle Seyah’s Coup d’Etat**

If the bomb that was planted at the Ancestral Hall in Medidas in s01e10 by a Level 6 agent was developed by the Company to use against Red 17 - then what was Delle Seyah Kendry of the Nine doing setting that bomb off, or facilitating Dutch’s access to Dr. Jaegar?

We first meet Delle Seyah in s01e04 Vessel, when she hires Dutch and her team to track down and retrieve the last scion of Family Lahani. It is never explained what - or when - happened that reduced the Lahanis to one unborn child. It’s also never revealed who sent the interfering team, or why did Delle Seyah reneged on the warrant. (As guardianship of the last Lahani grants Delle Seyah control of Land Lahani and its associated vote, she stands to gain little from obliterating the line entirely - not enough to interfere with her own warrant.) At the end of the episode, she becomes quite curious about Dutch, instructing her retinue to “Find out everything you can” about her. When we meet her next, in s01e07, she’s learned Dutch’s childhood name of Yalena. In s01e10, she reveals that she’s been in communication with Khlyen and is aware of his relation to Dutch.

Also in s01e07, Delle Seyah extracts an open-ended favor from Dutch in return for the Seyah having the kidnapping charges against Dutch and her team waived. Dutch demands 24 hours of unrestricted access to Dr. Jaegar to complete the deal, but the charges are Delle Seyah’s leverage. In s01e10 she uses this favor to remove Dutch from Old Town before the bombing. She also says that she’s done so on Khlyen’s request, which indicates that Dutch’s predicament in s01e07 was orchestrated by Khlyen and Delle Seyah - who are evidently in collaboration, given the Seyah triggered the genetic weapon after Dutch had neutralized the Level 6 agent. (Khlyen and Delle Seyah’s meddling would also explain how highly-competent “Team Awesome Force” was implicated in their “acquisition” of a mental health patient.)

It would seem, then, that Delle Seyah’s inquiry into Dutch led her to Khlyen (or else Khlyen to her) and the two formed a partnership of sorts. What Khlyen (and by extension, Red 17) stand to gain is evident: the threat of Jaegar and her research was removed, and the weapon intended to destroy them was used instead to send a message to those of the Company who’d had it developed. That the Quad was destabilized in the process also serves Red 17’s interests, by creating a bigger vacuum for the RAC to fill. However, it’s less clear what Delle Seyah stands to gain. Though the coup doubles her holdings in the Company (not including her control of the Lahani vote) and furthers her power in Qreshi politics, it does so in exchange for owing a significant debt to the very entity the genetic weapon was intended to destroy.

There exist four alternatives: that Delle Seyah had been lied to and is not aware of Red 17’s involvement or their connection to the weapon, that she made other gain(s) of which we’re unaware, that she took a calculated risk and believes she could best Red 17 later, or that she’s indeed the weaker party in this alliance and aware of her vulnerability.

In episode s01e10, Delle Seyah is forceful and atypically blunt when she summons Dutch to Qresh, then forceful in an entirely different way once Dutch arrives (Johnny in tow). Later she’s confident and in her element when triggering the bomb but otherwise, her behavior continues to be off kilter. After the attack her temper is thin and she divulges information rather freely; before the attack she’s so on edge her nervous humor (“Feel free to chiv [representative of a family she dislikes]. Just kidding! Or am I?”) in combination with her outrageous hitting on Dutch has Johnny question her sobriety. The impression is that she’s not in control of the situation and well aware of her that. Khlyen may have assured her complicity, but Delle Seyah does not seem all that comfortable in her current position despite controlling two out of four or five votes (the fate of the Quonia family, at whose representative the chiving remark was aimed, is unknown; Darish and Simms are seen to have survived, and the four unnamed families most likely indeed burned to ash).

**Conclusions**

In summary, we believe that the gene-directed weapon was developed by the Company to enact what’s effectively a genocide. The shared genetic characteristics of Level 6 agents stem from the glowy-green material which is endemic to Arkyn and used in the Level 6 transformation. (This material and its effect on human beings are the reason the Company had abandoned Arkyn in the first place.) The relationship between the Company and Red 17 is mutually antagonistic. The relationship between the RAC and Red 17 is more complicated. Red 17 uses the RAC to its own ends, but at least some within the RAC seem to consider it a cucko of sorts. Senior RAC agents (such as Turin) may be the best-informed about the functions and operations of Red 17 outside of that organisation’s  own members. The military have been aware of Red 17 for decades and seem to have considered it an enemy as long. That they cancelled Chrysalis that easily suggests it is not a top priority for them.

Delle Seya Kendry’s interest in Dutch led her to Khlyen or else Khlyen to her. The alliance between them allowed her to significantly increase her power in the Company, and Red 17 to remove the threats of Chrysalis and the genetic weapon. Her reasons for collaborating with Khlyen remain unknown at this juncture, as does the authenticity of her interest in Dutch.

Other open questions include the fate of the Lahani family; military plans and projects other than Chrysalis; the identity of Khlyen’s superiors; the nature of the glowy-green liquid; and the RAC’s true origins and purpose. However, having exhausted available information, the authors await the next season with bated breath. 


End file.
